Dr. Thomas Städler

Research area

I am a population geneticist with broad interests in evolutionary biology, mechanisms of speciation, and genomics. More specifically, my long-term research uses large-scale sequencing studies to address questions in molecular evolution, demographic history and the impact of mating-system differences, using wild tomatoes as a model system (Solanum section Lycopersicon). Moreover, in collaboration with a network of tomato genome biologists, I have contributed to analyses of the domestication history of the cultivated tomato, a commercially important crop.

A second, more recently started line of research concerns postzygotic reproductive isolation in the tomato clade, taking advantage of variable proportions of hybrid seed failure among different pairs of taxa. Specifically, I am interested in (possibly perturbed) genomic imprinting and other epigenetic phenomena and evaluate their potential roles in contributing to hybrid seed failure. To these ends, we employ controlled crosses in the greenhouse, laser-assisted microdissection of different seed components, and high-throughput transcriptome sequencing.